Sen. Robert Byrd was hospitalized Tuesday after falling at his home – the latest health setback for the nation’s longest-serving senator and another frustration for Democrats yet to enjoy the full strength of the 60-vote majority they won in the 2008 elections.

Byrd illness shows fragile majority

Sen. Robert Byrd was hospitalized Tuesday after falling at his home – the latest health setback for the nation’s longest-serving senator and another frustration for Democrats yet to enjoy the full strength of the 60-vote majority they won in the 2008 elections.

Democrats appeared to reach the magical, filibuster-defying 60-vote threshold when Al Franken was declared the overtime winner of the extended Minnesota Senate race in June.

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But by then, Byrd was largely absent from the Hill; a brief hospital stay in May stretched into nearly two months after he suffered a staph infection. Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) was also too ill then to be a presence on Capitol Hill.

Kennedy’s death last month reduced the Democrats’ majority to 59-40. And if Byrd’s latest health problems persist – he was hospitalized Tuesday so that doctors could monitor a possible infection – the Democrats will be down to 58 for the near term.

“Every vote is monumental when you’re right at the number,” said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), majority whip. “We nominally have 59. With Massachusetts, we may have 60. With Sen. Byrd’s absence, we may be back to 59. It’s a see-saw battle that we’ve been fighting for a long time.”

Massachusetts Democrats are racing to change state law to allow Gov. Deval Patrick (D) to name an interim senator to replace Kennedy – likely in time for critical upcoming votes on health care legislation. But that advantage could essentially be nullified if Byrd can’t return for votes.

Byrd was taken to the hospital by ambulance Tuesday after a fall at his home in McLean, Va.; his spokesman said he had simply tried to stand up too quickly, and that his caregiver had called for paramedics out of an abundance of caution. His stay will last at least a few days.

“While having no broken bones or bruises, upon examination, doctors found an elevated white-blood cell count which can be an early sign of an infection,” said Jesse Jacobs, a Byrd spokesman. “Therefore, his doctors have determined that Byrd should remain in the hospital for antibiotic treatment and observation. Sen. Byrd is in good spirits and expressed his disappointment that he was unable to join all his colleagues this afternoon for the biennial Senate photo.”

A neighbor, Victoria Hays, said she saw three firetrucks, two ambulances, and a uniformed police officer and security personnel in Byrd’s front yard Tuesday morning, and that there have been “a lot more nurses” attending to the senator’s home in recent days.

“I’ve never seen anything like this around his house before,” Hays said. “We’re hoping for the best.”

So are his Senate colleagues. Byrd, 91, the longest-serving senator in history and third in line of presidential succession as president pro tempore of the Senate, has had a hand in nearly every piece of social legislation in the past half century, has built up his state by directing billions of dollars for projects back home, and has had more to do with building the Senate’s institutional power than nearly any other senator in history.

“Not having him around is a loss to the Senate,” said Sen. Ted Kaufman (D-Del.), who worked as a top Senate aide for Joe Biden for more than two decades before being appointed to Biden’s old seat this year.

But Byrd’s increasingly frail condition forced him to give up his gavel of the Appropriations Committee in January. He still chairs a powerful subcommittee on homeland security spending, and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) is helping fill in for Byrd as the massive appropriations bill makes its way through the final stages of the legislative process.

“We’re working very closely with him and the staff,” Murray said Tuesday.